Access Welcomes Our Exclusive 'Dancing' Guest Blogger, Brandy!

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Singer Brandy, right, and her dance partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, are seen while rehearsing for "Dancing with the Stars," in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010.

Oh my goodness! I'm thrilled to be your exclusive access person inside the world of "Dancing with the Stars" (DWTS). Thank you Access Hollywood Family (AHF) for inviting me to be a part of your world! I journal a lot but it is different from blogging. I promise to all of AHF that I will do my best to bring you into our world at DWTS. Now that my first week of dancing and elimination is over, I am feeling a little better about learning to dance. Maks is the best of the best, in my opinion, when it comes to teaching dance. I had heard so much about what a disciplinarian he was that I admit I was a little scared, but he is sooo cool. When we first met, we had an instant connection! As it turns out, Maks is exactly what I need. He's as much of a perfectionist as I am, and I'm always down for a few extra minutes of rehearsal - even when Maks says that we're done! So, maybe he's finally met his match. I think I am his perfect dance partner!!

Learning the Viennese Waltz was nerve-wracking. Everyone thinks I have a lot of dance abilities because of my music career, but I promise you I have never been formally trained as a dancer. Maks being the professional didn't want to push me so hard for the first few weeks and the first dance. The choreography of the Waltz was difficult because of my lack of experience but Maks was considerate to choreograph the waltz in a way to build confidence and allow me to feel comfortable on the dance floor with minimum pressure. I appreciate that Maks, thank you! I got the steps right away but knowing the steps and adding personality was a little hard to combine when you are not a professional dancer. Three weeks of rehearsal before your first live performance is definitely a plus.

Monday, September 20, the energy level throughout the whole DWTS family was very high. Everyone was excited and ready to show off weeks of rehearsals in their first live performance with an audience. All the teams were excited and felt confident that rehearsals had paid off. I have always had a certain level of nervousness performing in front of an audience, whether it is music or TV. It's just a natural thing for me. I usually talk to myself thinking and speaking positive words of encouragement to me. When it was our turn to dance, I kept repeating to myself, "I can do this; just stay focused on Maks and follow his lead". As we stepped onto the dance floor, the audience melted away, and it was just Maks and I dancing in our rehearsal space. It was a wonderful feeling and experience. After the dance was over, I felt relieved. I had achieved another new milestone, learning to do something I've never done before. Now for the judges scoring, I felt the judges scoring were fair. I did blunder on a step and was able to recover. More importantly, I didn't trip over my feet and was able to finish the routine. I was pleased with the scores. I can always improve and I'm thankful to have another week to do just that.

Tuesday, September 21, the night my nerves were really jumping. I knew my family, friends, and fans would vote for Maks and me, but I wasn't sure about the rest of the world. Hearing Tom announcing the teams that were safe and Maks and I were not among them, my body started to tremble. I truly didn't want to go home! Your mind can play negative tricks on you, especially if you have to wait through several commercials to find out the results. I tried to stay calm by being positive. I looked over to my daughter and over to my family and saw the love and support, I had to smile. At last, Tom announced Maks and I were staying, what an overwhelming feeling of excitement and happiness I felt. I thanked God, the Universe, family, friends, and fans. The most memorable moment was the proud look of my daughter for her mother. Lots of our conversations have been about overcoming fear.

I'm looking forward to dancing the jive this week. The moves are so fast and Maks' choreography is so complicated, I'm definitely having issues. All I can say is "feet get ready," and "I can do this." As long as I stay focused on Maks, he will keep me moving throughout the routine. Tonight is the night that you'll see if all of our hard work pays off! I hope that you'll feel the excitement of the dance and feel our chemistry that we have worked hard to show through our moves and our music choice. Believe me when I say, it's harder than it looks and all we'll give is our best. The best to all DWTS teams, each team works hard at rehearsals and when we get on the dance floor we've got one shot to make the magic happens.

My desire is to touch the heart and souls of our viewers through dance. Thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity to talk to you and share my first performance experiences with DWTS. I will be blogging my experiences twice a week so you can expect to hear a little worrying, a lot of dance-talk, experiences with my fellow DWTS team members and sharing what's it like to be a student of Maksim Chmerkovskiy. I look forward to your questions, so be sure to write in your question and I'll make sure to answer a few of them at the end of each of my blogs and give you a special shout out!!!
Much love to all to my fellow stars and my fans,